Hire Strategies Blog

Best UK Recruitment Blog 2009 - Sirona and Botman conspire against me

Sirona are out to win this year and have even pulled out the big guns to help (see Unblog point 4).  But maybe Andy needs to focus his efforts in helping out Rafa; or has he given up on European football and accepted that Leicester, Derby and Nottingham are more convenient than Manchester and London?  Looks like second place is his real calling.

Please help me stop this outrageous conspiracy; click here to vote!

Best UK Recruitment Blog 2009 - Louie's rules

On what basis did the Top 10 become the Top 10.  Believe it or not, there was good reason.  Here follow the Top 10 rules with the blogs that offend Louie rule-by-rule.

1. Writing a few recent posts is a good start. (Thoughts on online recruitment [not many thoughts!])
2. You cannot just start writing again during the competition period. (Picture More)
3. Your blog has to be interesting rather than dull, dull, dull. (GAAPWeb)
4. Your blog must be your own and not a company blog. (Reckitt Benckiser)
5. You cannot be a medley of experts just to get some volume of posts. (Digital Recruiting)
6. You have to be original and not just a karaoke act. (Recruitment 2.0)
7. Outright plagiarism is not acceptable - put some effort in. (Simply Better)
8. Posts have to be more than a few lines of nothingness. (Enhance Media)
9. You need to write something new not state the bleeding obvious. (RiseSmart)
10. You must look like a blog star, sound like a blog star, and act like a blog star. (See this post)

Of course, some of you may well feel the rules have not been applied consistently.  Can I therefore refer you to the Louie Walsh Rule Book, rule 78, sub-section C, paragraph 4:

"The rules may be applied inconsistently to please the judge and any judgee considering this to be unfair - tough luck".

Please cast your votes; voting closes on December 14.  Click here to vote now.

Best UK Recruitment Blog 2009 - The battle is ON!

The 2009 contest started this week but having seen the list there are very few real contenders; bit like the Premiership! 

Or will we see Man City Madler use his newly acquired millions to race to the front but burn out at the end?  Will Blunter shout and swear to the front.  Maybe a Hull City moment from them up North?  Will Enhance blame the ref when he slips on Dave's Bananas?  It's a bit of a haul until the end of the voting season but at the end of the day it's down to just two.  Staying power, big mouths, even bigger opinions but whose got the loudest fans.  Will it be the kop crying into their beer yet again?  They are getting used to losing so maybe, just maybe, it is their time?

So who's gonna get your vote?  Click here to vote now.

Bloggers: the loud minority or another dying breed?

I subscribe to 20 blogs.  I have left my reader unchecked for about 6 weeks as a test to build up 717 unread posts.  Here are some interesting stats:

1. 550. (Mashable)
2. 71. (AllFacebook)
3. 17.
4. 17.
5. 12
6. All others in single figures.

I was quite surprised by the stats.  You could of course take out Mashable as it is more of a publication really which still means that the majority of posts is by 1 blog. 

So are bloggers dying off?  Do I need a new list? How does your RSS list compare?

Social Recruiting 16/17 September Nottingham & London only £299

Twitter or Blog | Blog or Twitter

Do we need a blog and a twitter account or is just one enough?  Even a short message has a place on a blog and vice versa; and if both connect with each other why do one instead of the other?

If I were a recruiter would I.....

.....BLOG?

Here's how I see it now. If I were a recruiter I would want my company to have a recruitment blog to help with SEO, company updates, general recruitment stuff etc. Otherwise you end up with an award winning set of blogs a la PwC i.e. one or two posts a year from their young bloggers who do not appear to have the time, inclination or incentive to post more often.

Whereas, give a recruiter a Twitter account and it is easier for them to maintain and allows them to update candidates about specific recruitment activities they as individual recruiters are working on.

Blog = company. Twitter = recruiter.
Both = better SEO and conversations.

2009 will demand more than 'expert' knowledge

Knowing how to cook a turkey (because you have a Jamie Oliver cook book from last year) doesn't mean you'll get it right.  And we all know the consequences of getting it wrong!

2009 will not be a place where the know it alls and big mouths succeed.  Anyone can read a few blogs, reports or books on pretty much any subject but it doesn't make you an expert; even though many seem to think it does. 

The last few years have been easy for everyone.  2009 will demand execution of projects or execution of bad suppliers - which are you?

If you feel insulted or picked on by this post then maybe you should think about who you are, what you do and ultimately, what value you really add. 

Learning new skills is part of your growth curve but the opportunity to learn whilst being paid should come because of previous success.  If you are learning at the expense of others, and they carry all the risk, watch out.  It's not the way for 2009. The real experts will succeed in 2009, the hangers on will find themselves with no place to go. 

Let us hope that paying clients, with very focused budgets and people, make more right decisions than wrong ones.  So that put the onus on the real experts to differentiate themselves; bring on 2009!

The time of year | Christmas and annual awards!

Yesterday we had the Fistful of Talent Blog Power Rankings and now we have UK Recruiter following hot on their heels with the 2008 Best UK Recruitment Blog.  Whilst these awards are not life changing they do a lot to promote the various blogs which are in most cases good and provide useful information to the recruitment and HR community.

So please do take a moment to vote for one of the blogs so that we all know someone appreciates reading our opinions, ramblings, thoughts.......

Vote for the 2008 Best UK Recruitment Blog

Customer service - NOT!

I did a quick shop online yesterday and other than a number of bugs/errors on the site I managed to complete my shop; payment confirmation received.  Now just a matter of Royal Mail NOT leaving my parcel and me having to go and collect it and some totally inconvenient time.

And that I thought that was the end of that.